I welcome the Minister to the House. I congratulate him on his first social welfare Bill. I am not going to knock any of it; there are plenty of people here to do that. There are a couple of things I would like to bring to the Minister's attention, first and foremost, the voluntary contributions with respect to social welfare. A person needing to make voluntary contributions under class S needs to pay €500 per annum, or thereabouts, while a person under class A has to pay €5,000 per annum. There is very little diff…

The Minister of State is very welcome. This is my first time to address him since he was re-elevated and I congratulate him on that. I am delighted to see him in post and am sure that the people over in north west are also delighted to see him in post as well. Recently I spoke in this House about a serious matter concerning the taxi industry and today I would like to address the current regulatory issues affecting the industry. I raised serious concerns in the House about companies holding up to 200 taxi plates and…

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive reply from the Department. When tabling this matter, I was aware that the Department has the NTA to oversee the industry, if one wants to put it like that. I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter, which I raised in order to discuss this matter of public concern. From what I understand, the fixed-price system used is not to the benefit of the consumer. Rather, it is to the benefit of the operator. Based on what we have heard today, first and foremost, …

The Senator is shining a light on Roscommon.

During the visit of President Zelenskyy, Ireland was lucky. The drones out in the Irish Sea could have been a catastrophe for the arrival of the President of Ukraine. What would that have done for Ireland? It would have highlighted the abuse or neglect of the Defence Forces and Ireland's defence and security by the Houses of the Oireachtas and not just the Government. Parties in this House have been involved in the Dáil and Seanad since 1998 when we started to run down the Defence Forces to where they are today. Th…

I join others in complimenting the staff of Leinster House. Wonderful work was put in by all of our colleagues and those who look after our needs. I also compliment the Cathaoirleach on his speech, which was a wonderful tour de force . However, the visit gives rise to questions on the issue of Ireland's position in the world. We go on with this nonsense about military neutrality and political neutrality, but there are no definitions of such concepts in international law. Customary international law recognises neutr…

I know what I am about to speak about is something the Deputy Leader cares dearly about, given her constituency. I know her commitment to the Defence Forces and to all things defence. I am sure that she is as outraged as I am about the Financial Times article, "How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe's defences". We have been talking about defence in this Chamber for ten years. For ten years I have been constantly talking about defence, and where are we? We are getting worse and worse. We have people talking abo…

Last week, I spoke about companies that are holding up to 200 taxi plates and renting them out at a cost of between €100 and €200 per week. There will be a major taxi drivers' strike in Dublin tomorrow. It will finish out on Merrion Square. Why? We have all become familiar with the various companies we can use to get a taxi. One of those companies has introduced a new way of dealing with drivers. A case in point was given to me today. The company in question quoted €66 for a taxi trip from Cabinteely in Dublin to D…

The Deputy Leader will be aware, as will the Cathaoirleach and many other Members of the House, taxi deregulation was brought in to increase competition and make the taxi service, particularly in the bigger cities, more available. I travelled in a taxi last week and the driver was renting the plate for the taxi. It cost him €200 a week. That is €10,000 a year. I understand anecdotally that there are people in this city who have 100 and 200 taxi plates they rent out. Some are absentee landlords - they do not live in…

I thank the Minister for his patience in bringing this Bill forward. There are a couple of things I want to address at the outset. In drafting this legislation, part of the purpose behind it was to simplify things and increase clarity where possible but there is a huge media interest in the outcome of this. The various publishing bodies and so forth expect to come out of this pretty good, from what I can see. Maybe I am wrong and the Minister will disagree with me. I am looking at key Irish cases over quite an exte…

I thank the Minister. He has destroyed some of my paperwork in his answers, but that is fine. I want to go back to section 34A(d). The Minister made points in his speech about a couple of things, one of which was judge-made law. We are very lucky in this country that judges can make law and, indeed, some of the laws they make can be challenged by other judges or changed by other judges. That is a good thing. The Minister also made the point that we do not want to be too prescriptive. In legislation, we want to allo…

----- and I could show it was a misuse of the system, I could get damages for that and, more importantly, my legal team could get top-of-the-range fees for it. Is there a case to be made for criminal charges against somebody who uses the court system to frustrate what is legitimate comment? I am talking about the public domain. I will come back in a few minutes with something else. I am interested in the Minister's answers on those points.

I move amendment No. 15: In page 16, to delete lines 5 to 20.

In July 2026, we take over the Presidency of the European Union. The media has been rife with speculation in respect of our ability to provide security for the Presidency. The decimation of the Defence Forces is something I have spoken on for 11 years in this Chamber. There are green shoots and hopeful signs in some parts of the Defence Forces. Can we imagine the embarrassment in Ireland if we cannot host a meeting of prime ministers in this country because we do not have the security resources? Is the speculation …

It is my experience that most radio stations now delay the broadcast so there is a lag between the time someone speaks and the time listeners hear it. I agree with Senator McDowell with respect to some of the live debate programmes on television. They are set up with people with specific views. The one that bothers me is that we have a growing tradition of protest in this country. Protests start up at the Rotunda and work their way down to Leinster House or Merrion Square. Where a broadcaster is covering that live,…

The Minister adverted to the man of straw who has no means making defamatory statements and everyone having recourse to the courts. Let us be honest about it: people need a lot of money to be able to go to the courts to defend their good name. Not everyone not has access to the courts. The courts may be there and available, but access to the courts is a function of the income and assets people have. A person can be defamed, and we see it every day of the week on social media. We see quasi-defamation. We see it in t…

We are largely talking about RTÉ and Virgin Media. One of the things that concerns me is that there has been a massive growth in podcasts. Some of them are really good and deliver excellent programmes regularly and with good timeslots, etc. On the other hand, some of them are run by what might best be regarded as fringe elements. Where do we stand here? Who is liable in a situation where you are defamed in one of these Internet-style programmes, which are set up in exactly the same way as an RTÉ or Virgin Media pro…

Senator McDowell said everything that I wanted to say. It is all gone. My speech is finished. Let us go back to the start of my relationship with Billy. he had a relationship with my brother. My brother bought the Twelve Pins Hotel from Billy when Billy was emigrating. My brother knew him very well. In 2016, I spotted a notice that Enda Kenny was about to appoint a guy living in Chicago to the Seanad. Not being one to be shy with Twitter, I put out a tweet about how outrageous this was. What a waste of a seat, brin…

Yesterday, I spoke on the issue of tracker mortgages and the plight of those who were moved off trackers by the banks before the banks were ultimately forced to do something. I did, as promised yesterday, write to the Garda Commissioner and it has been passed up the line. Enough has been said about that for now. As a result of yesterday, I have had several contacts already this morning on the issue of vulture funds. Vulture funds are charging up to 9% on mortgages when the high street banks are charging about 3%. T…

I too would like to remember Sr. Stan. May her gentle soul rest in peace. As a proud Galwegian, like the Leader, I am sure we both feel that the election of Catherine Connolly was a great thing - a woman born in The Claddagh and reared in Shantalla. Many people who were born in addresses in both of those areas did not have the same opportunity in life. What a great thing it is to see Catherine create a vacancy for the Leader to challenge for a seat in Galway West. Last night I watched the programme on tracker mortg…